PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Elke Gabriel
AU  - Walid Albanna
AU  - Giovanni Pasquini
AU  - Anand Ramani
AU  - Natasia Josipovic
AU  - Aruljothi Mariappan
AU  - Friedrich Schinzel
AU  - Celeste M. Karch
AU  - Guobin Bao
AU  - Marco Gottardo
AU  - Jürgen Hescheler
AU  - Veronica Persico
AU  - Silvio O. Rizzoli
AU  - Janine Altmüller
AU  - Giuliano Callaini
AU  - Argyris Papantonis
AU  - Olivier Goureau
AU  - Volker Busskamp
AU  - Toni Schneider
AU  - Jay Gopalakrishnan
TI  - Human brain organoids assemble functionally integrated bilateral optic vesicles
AID  - 10.1101/2021.03.30.437506
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.03.30.437506
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/03/30/2021.03.30.437506.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/03/30/2021.03.30.437506.full
AB  - During embryogenesis, optic vesicles develop from the diencephalon via a complex process of organogenesis. Using iPSC-derived human brain organoids, we attempted to simplify the complexities and demonstrate the formation of forebrain-associated bilateral optic vesicles, cellular diversity, and functionality. Around day thirty, brain organoids could assemble optic vesicles, which progressively develop as visible structures within sixty days. These optic vesicle-containing brain organoids (OVB-Organoids) constitute a developing optic vesicle’s cellular components, including the primitive cornea and lens-like cells, developing photoreceptors, retinal pigment epithelia, axon-like projections, and electrically active neuronal networks. Besides, OVB-Organoids also display synapsin-1, CTIP-positive, myelinated cortical neurons, and microglia. Interestingly, various light intensities could trigger photoreceptor activity of OVB-Organoids, and light sensitivities could be reset after a transient photo bleach blinding. Thus, brain organoids have the intrinsic ability to self-organize forebrain-associated primitive sensory structures in a topographically restricted manner and can allow conducting interorgan interaction studies within a single organoid.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.